Microsoft may have sent you an email with a hidden gift certificate worth $10

We're coming up to the time of year when a little extra money is welcome. Well... that's true of pretty much any day of the year, but with Christmas presents to buy, it is particularly true now. So how about some free money from Microsoft?

It seems that you may already have a free gift certificate worth $10 sitting in your inbox. Microsoft included the gift cards in emails it sent out to people, but rather than making an announcement, the company decided to stealthily hide the money.

The hidden gift certificates were noticed by a number of Reddit users. The emails date back as far as Black Friday, so you could have been sitting on free money for a little while now.

As noted by Redditor Mikejl87 -- among many others -- if you click the red Christmas trees in a promotional email sent out by Microsoft, you'll be transported to a page offering you a $10 discount. An earlier version of the email required you to click on a blue squirrel.

According to OnMSFT, the credit offered by Microsoft is only valid for three months, so now is the time to check your inbox to see if you're one of the lucky ones!